November 1, 2011

Dragon Nest Mercenary Skill Build

I have been eaten up by this Dragon Nest craze that I chose to try it out. I didn't think it would gobble me up like this. Dragon Nest's gameplay, controls, and maps are so engaging that it has turned into a new bonding activity for me and Princess Cow.

This guide will be using a Level 40 Axe Hybrid Mercenary Skill Build. I chose this because just like it's author, I am a fan of Cabal Online and this build draws inspiration from that game, particularly its Warrior class. Aside from that, I myself am playing an Axe Mercenary because of it's high damage and my fondness for dungeon runs.

A point to note is that Mercenaries have no magic or physical build difference. All their skills are based on physical attack. And this is also a good class for both PvP and PvE. However, there are really many skills for Mercenaries so you have to give and take. You may want to shift some SP from attack skills to defensive skills for higher survivability. Advantages:

High Spammability – You will many skills to spam most of the time. This feels more exciting compared to the situation if you need to wait long time for your skills to cool down.

Able to learn many useful skills including the various howls which benefit either yourself or the whole party member within the vicinity.

Disadvantages:

Low Mana – The reason is the same as physical Swordmasters. Since your equipment will be based on the Bear stats and not Wisdom, your mana pool will be low. Hence, you may need heraldry plate for MP or a MP regen item to cover this issue.

One of the Discriminated Class – Despite the usefulness of a Mercenary, many people still favour the other classes more, like Paladins, Clerics, Force User and Bowmaster. You may find yourself having some difficulties getting into harder nests. However, you don’t have to worry much if you have a group of friends with you or you’re in a helpful guild.

Take note that the English names of the skills are taken reference from MMOsite, hence the names may contradict what we have in Dragon Nest SEA.

If you need to use the simulator to come up with your own build, you may find it here.

Warrior Skills

Impact Punch and Heavy Slash – 2 very low damage skills. Leave them at pre-requisite will do. They can be used as filler skills while you spam other high damage skills due to their fast casting time. They are extremely useful in PvP as well to keep your enemy in the air.

Tumble – Max it for faster cool down time so that you can avoid mobs better.

Rising Slash – Put this at lv 6 at least for execution of 2 hits. Very useful in both PvP (air combo) and PvE. In PvE, you can chain Rising Slash with Aerial Combo. I increased this skill to high level due to excess of SP and wanting to use up all SP just for the sake of it =D. You can save them for 2nd advancement if you want.

Drop Kick – Very important skill in PvP for air combo as well. Not really useful in PvE.

Sweeping Kick – Up to you if you want it or not. Basically, its just a front AOE normal physical sweeping kick to enemies in front but the damage is low. Not used often.

Soccer Kick – Lv 1. Not worth adding this high.

Dash – Max it for higher movement speed.

Impact Wave – There’s no need to add because it is a magic type skill. Being a hybrid, you can spam skills. You won’t have much chances to use this as well.

Circle Break – Physical type attack which can break enemy’s defense. Lv 1 if you want this skill. If not, you can ignore it.

Highlander – A skill which requires no skill point to learn and yet VERY IMPORTANT. When used, you will get a buff which prevents you from dying. It works like this. With the buff on, even if the boss will KO you, your HP will still be left with 1.

Relieve – Added till lv 2 to remove 2 negative buffs on yourself. Some people prefer to add till lv 4 for lower cooldown. Normally, we rarely get debuffed from 3 skills or more so some people prefer lv 2. Personal preference.

Aerial Evasion – In this case, it is maxed at lv 3. You can choose to lower it if you find you can survive with longer cooldown for this skill.

Wake-up Attack – A must-learn skill. Used when you are knockdown-ed. Use it at the correct time to recover.

Mental Mastery - Skill that increases your Mana pool. Even though the % is not a lot, I still maxed this because Mercenaries have low MP and also due to excess SP.

Mental Training – Maxed for regen purposes even though the % is not a lot. Same reason as Mental Mastery.

Mercenary

Stomp – Fast cast skill. If you’re advancing as a Barbarian, you will need to raise this skill to high lv. I don’t think the slow effect from this skill affect bosses so it is not really worth raising this high. Damage increment is not significant.

Flying Swing – Pre-requisite will do. Raising to higher level for Destroyer. This skill has quite a long cast time so it is susceptible to interruption. However, the good point is you get damaged 70% lesser during the casting and you can throw mobs/players in the air but not on bosses.

Taunting Howl – Increasing your threat and reducing the mob attacking abilities. Some people raise this high for better debuff. However, I chose to leave it at pre-requisite because I do not want to steal aggro from Paladins since they are the main tank. Even though Mercenaries have Iron Skin, undeniably Paladins are still the wanted tanks because of their lv 40 defensive ultimate skill and some other defensive skills as well. Furthermore, they can taunt and have high threat-generating skills as well. (I have intentions of raising it because of Mr K’s Barbarian build which utilizes Taunting Howl + Devastating Howl to reduce monsters damage by 100%)

Demolition Fist – Pre-requisite.

Punishing Swing – Pre-requisite.

Battle Howl – Pre-requisite as well. Buff teammates physical attack, critical and fainting values. Personally, I left it at pre-requisite because not all teammates benefit from physical attack buff though the critical+fainting values are useful. IMO, SP is used better elsewhere.

Circle Swing – Wide AOE skill which knockbacks mobs. Pre-requisite.

Circle Bomber – Throws enemies a distance away from you into the air. Pre-requisite.

Iron Skin – 16 seconds buff which reduces 40% damage received. One of the best skills for Mercenaries. Maxed.

Whirlwind – Undeniably, one of the best damage skills. Maxed. Or you may want to transfer to Rolling Attack if you want.

Rolling Attack – One of the best DPS skill if all your hits manage to hit the enemy. You need to position yourself properly. On smaller mobs, a larger portion of the hits for this skill tend to miss. So Whirlwind tend to be more efficient. In this build, I made it lower so that I can add Crisis Howl.

Dash Upper – Throws enemy into the air. Activated by left clicking after dashing. Quite useful in PvP. Lv 1.

Crisis Howl – Must-learn skill. When you are being attacked and not movable, this skill will help you gain back mobility. Lv 1.

Soccer Kick Combo – A useful skill to chain your combo count. Lv 1.

Toughness – Maxed for higher physical defense.

Whirl Typhoon – Insane version of Whirlwind with invulnerable status. However, this skill is not amazing in terms of damage. It is more for crowd control. Useful in both PvE and PvP.

Gigantic Bomber – Not invulnerable status. Damage is quite good.

Devastating Howl – No longer a lv 40 ultimate skill but it is still a very good one. Lv 1 will do. One point to take note is that if you see this skill having around 5 second duration on videos, it is the old version. Since it is no longer an ultimate skill, the duration is reduced to around 2 or 3 seconds.